Rick Dickinson, ZX Spectrum designer, RIP

[js at cimmeri.com]

On 4/26/2018 11:46 AM, Liam Proven via 
cctalk wrote:
>> Personally, the $99 Timex 1000 was the only computer I could have afforded
>> back then.  Schools had Apple II's but not so many people in their homes
>> then, at least where I lived.
> That's very cool. Thanks for sharing.
>
> I knew the TS1000 (and TS1500?) did better in the USA than the TS2068 did,
> but I didn't realise that they were that popular.
>
> I was about 12 when they came out, and I have to confess, lacking colour or
> sound or graphics, they were of little to no interest to me. It was the
> later Spectrum that grabbed me.
>
> But my uncle's ZX81 was the first computer I ever used that was owned by a
> private individual. He was probably in his 60s when he got it, and he never
> learned to operate it. I managed to enter a simple Lunar Lander game from
> the manual, save it and get it running, which hugely impressed him -- he'd
> failed repeatedly to get that far.
>
> I suppose that was my first entry into the world of computing, in which I
> still work...

Very interesting to see this perspective 
from the UK!

Located in the U.S. (Washington, D.C), I 
started with an Apple II+ in 1979 as a 
12 year old.
Out of curiosity, I later bought the 
Sinclair ZX-80, but coming from the 
Apple, I thought the
ZX-80 was horrid and not useable.

I later also tried the Timex Sinclair 
1000.. better.. but still seemed like a 
waste of time toy.

Mind you, I had a monitor, and (2) disk 
drives on the Apple and had had exposure to
HP, DEC, and IBM minicomputers by the 
age of 16.

Always with my nose into my own 
business, I'd no idea how fortunate I 
was until reading
of others' experiences here.

Thanks for sharing.

- John